MIS CHAPTER 20 REVIEW

pay-per-click (PPC)

A concept where advertisers don't pay unless someone clicks on their ad.

fault-tolerance

The ability of a system to continue operation even if a component fails.

walled gardens

A closed network or single set of services controlled by one dominant firm. Term is often applied to mobile carriers that act as gatekeepers, screening out hardware providers and software services from their networks.

link fraud

Also called "spamdexing" or "link farming." The process of creating a series of bogus websites, all linking back to the pages one is trying to promote.

ad network

An effort that links advertisers to websites and other content providers (e.g., app firms, games) that are willing to host advertisements, typically in exchange for payment.

37. Google's dominance in search has discouraged all rivals, save for Microsoft with Bing, from improving or investing in competitive efforts.

FALSE Rivals in search include established players like Yahoo! and relative newcomers like Wolfram Alpha. Apple's Siri is basically a search engine, and the firm has been aggressively cutting deals with category players like Yelp and the Weather Channel, and Apple now lets app firms integrate Siri into their own offerings, as well, all of which further cut Google out of new emerging channels for search.

8. Google sells more advertising than any other media company in the world, including Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, and the New York Times corporation.

TRUE No television network, no magazine group, no newspaper chain brings in more ad revenue than Google. And none is more profitable.

14. Users don't really search the Internet using Google; they search a copy of Internet content stored on Google's servers.

TRUE Users don't really search the Web; they search an archived copy stored on a search firm's computers. A firm creates these copies by crawling and indexing discoverable documents.

landing page

The Web page displayed when a user clicks on an advertisement.

deep linking

A link that takes a user to a specific webpage (rather than the home page), or which launches an app and brings up a unique location rather than just launching the app. As an example, a deep link from Pinterest might take a user directly to the Etsy web page or app listing featuring the vendor of that item, rather than generically opening Etsy.com or the Etsy app.

global server

A massive network of computer servers running software to coordinate their collective use. Server farms provide the infrastructure backbone to SaaS and hardware cloud efforts, as well as many large-scale Internet services.

quality score

A measurement of ad performance (CTR) and ad relevance, and landing page experience. Ads that are seen as relevant and that consumers respond to have higher quality scores. The firm uses quality score multiplied by the maximum CPC to determine an ad's display ranking.

content adjacency problems

A situation where ads appear alongside text the advertiser would like to avoid.

dynamic search ads

Ads generated automatically based on the content of a website. Dynamic ads are particularly useful for firms with rapidly updating inventory or firms struggling to keep up with new search terms that may be relevant to their product lines.

keyword advertising

Advertisements that are targeted based on a user's query.

contextual advertising

Advertising based on a website's content.

PageRank

Algorithm developed by Google co-founder Larry Page to rank websites.

MNOs

An industry term meaning mobile network operator, also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier.

34. Which of the following is true regarding ad networks?

Competition among ad networks is subject to network effects. Since advertisers attract content providers, which in turn attract more advertisers, then ad networks are subject to two-sided network effects.

31. Advertisers can also use a technique known as ad blocking to protect themselves from having their ads appear when specific words show up on a web page.

FALSE Advertisers can also use negative keywords, which tell networks to avoid showing ads when specific words appear.

23. Part of the brilliance of the Android operating system is that this has given Google a way to see user behavior and target ads inside all apps used on the system.

FALSE Android does not "see" inside all apps. When you search for restaurant reviews in Google's search engine, it can serve you ads and continue to build your user profile. But if you search via Yelp's app on an iPhone, Google can't see you at all.

6. Google is a massive player in search. However, Google's rivals (including Bing and Yahoo) combine for a larger total share of the search market.

FALSE Google continues to dominate worldwide search market share at 86.13%, compared to 6.66% for Bing and 2.70% for Yahoo.

40. Google owns a mobile phone network.

FALSE Google doesn't own a mobile phone network; it's an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), licensing capacity from T-Mobile and Sprint at a discount for resale under its own brand and plans.

2. Google has made roughly 75 acquisitions overall, more than Microsoft but less than Amazon.

FALSE Google has made roughly 200 acquisitions overall, which is more than Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Yahoo combined.

46. While Google plays in search and Android, it's still very much a horizontal company when compared to other tech industry rivals.

FALSE Google is one of the most vertically integrated tech firms the world has seen, offering OS, services, software, hardware, stores, broadband, and mobile.

7. Google has been a relentless experimenter, even encouraging employees to spend 20 percent of their free time on new efforts. The primary benefit of "20 percent time" is seen as an employee retention-targeted job perk, since very few "20 percent time" projects have actually resulted in efforts Google has launched.

FALSE Roughly half of Google products got their start in 20 percent time.

1. While Google initially earned most of its money via advertising, today most of income comes from other non-Google businesses including Gmail, Android, cloud computing, and Nest.

FALSE Some 80 percent of Alphabet's nearly $181 billion in 2020 revenue came from advertising.

45. Google Glass has not made any other measurable impacts for other industries.

FALSE Some have questioned Glass's future as a consumer device, especially after the firm canceled its Glass Explorer sales program, but it has made a successful breakout in the medical community, where it was used during an operation to remove an abdominal tumor.

3. The success of the firm's search business has made the firm more risk averse.

FALSE The success of Google's ad business provides a massive cash hoard that allows the firm to fuel experimentation, constantly innovate, tolerate failure, acquire aggressively, and patiently build new markets.

42. Global anti-trust laws are synchronized by world trade bodies, so a ruling in one nation will apply to most other industrialized nations.

FALSe In the United States, after a nearly two-year probe, one of the biggest investigations in history (generating over 9 million pages in testimony), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has essentially said "no," at least for now. The FTC voted unanimously to close its antitrust investigation without bringing charges. The situation in Europe looks decidedly different. The European Union has accused Google of violating antitrust laws, displaying Google-provided results such as shopping, travel, and insurance, over rival products.

27. Studies have shown that while online advertising is growing, the take from the Big Three—Google, Microsoft, and Amazon—is getting larger while the percentage of revenue earned by firms outside the Big Three is shrinking.

FALSe Studies have shown that while online advertising is growing, the take from the Big Three—Google, Facebook, and Amazon—is getting larger while the percentage of revenue earned by firms outside the Big Three is shrinking.

negative keywords

Keywords that prevent an ad from showing up when specific terms are present.

deep Web

Internet content that can't be indexed by Google and other search engines.

25. Google's moves to allow hotel bookings directly from search pages have been well received by its large advertisers, Priceline and Expedia.

Making Google more relevant, especially on mobile, makes sense, but the new functionality comes with risks. Google's move into travel booking is upsetting some of the firm's biggest customers. Priceline spends over $1.5 billion advertising with Google each year. Expedia spends over $1 billion. Just these two firms account for about a 5 percent chunk of Google revenue.

MVNO

Mobile virtual network operator. A wireless telecommunications services provider that doesn't own its own infrastructure. Instead, MVNOs pay a reduced price to license capacity from other providers and repackage the service under their own brand.

49. The technology used to enable the wireless payment scheme in Google Pay is known as

NFC Google Pay will leverage NFC (near field communication), a payment technology finally making its way into retailer point-of-sale systems.

NFC

Near field communication—a short-range, wireless communication standard. NFC is being used to support contactless payment and transactions over NFC-equipped mobile devices.

cache

Refers to a temporary storage space used to speed computing tasks.

13. The term for techniques used to improve a page's rank in search results is:

SEO Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website's organic search ranking. The scope and influence of search has made SEO an increasingly vital marketing function.

organic or natural search

Search engine results returned and ranked according to relevance.

query

Search.

semantic Web

Sites that wrap data in invisible tags that can be recognized by search engines, analysis tools, and other services to make it easier for computer programs to accurately categorize, compare, and present this information.

4. Over the past several years, online advertising has represented the only advertising category that is consistently trending with positive share growth.

TRUE It's true! Over the past several years, online advertising has represented the only advertising category that is consistently trending with positive share growth.

spiders, Web crawlers, software robots

Software that traverses available websites in an attempt to perform a given task. Search engines use spiders to discover documents for indexing and retrieval.

colocation facilities

Sometimes called a "colo," or carrier hotel; provides a place where the gear from multiple firms can come together and where the peering of Internet traffic can take place. Equipment connecting in colos could be high-speed lines from ISPs, telecom lines from large private data centers, or even servers hosted in a colo to be closer to high-speed Internet connections.

41. Google's size has caused it to be investigated for antitrust violations in Europe.

TRUE European authorities have investigated Google. Some wonder if the firm has an unfair advantage, favoring its own properties, like Maps and YouTube over rivals. Results from these properties are integrated with Google search, and the toolbar that appears across the top of most Google websites also provides preferred access to Google rather than rival properties.

15. Google gets creative about how its servers are cooled—stormwater runoff is used in the southeastern United States.

TRUE Google gets creative about how its servers are cooled. A server in Finland is cooled entirely by pumping in water from the Gulf of Finland. Stormwater runoff is used in the southeastern United States. A Belgian facility uses adjacent canal water.

38. Google assets include brand, scale, network effects, and data.

TRUE Google's brand is strong (it's the first service most consumers think of, and its name is synonymous with Internet search). Google also enjoys major scale advantages in search, and network effects in advertising. The firm's dominance also helps grow a data asset that can be used in service improvement.

32. Firms that choose one ad network are not required to run ads from only that network.

TRUE In fact, many websites will serve ads from several ad networks (as well as exclusive space sold by their own sales force), oftentimes mixing several different offerings on the same page.

39. YouTube is actually the Internet's second biggest search engine.

TRUE In terms of query volume alone, YouTube, not Bing or Yahoo!, is the Internet's second largest search engine. Defeating Google with some sort of technical advantage will be difficult since Web-based innovation can often be quickly imitated. Google now rolls out over 550 tweaks to its search algorithm annually, with many features mimicking or outdoing innovations from rivals.

22. As users spend more time in apps, this presents a challenge to Google's dominance in search.

TRUE While most online desktop time happens via the Web browser on mobile, mobile users spend an estimated 86 percent of their time in apps and only 14 percent on the Web. This shift concerns Google. When you search for restaurant reviews in Google's search engine, it can serve you ads and continue to build your user profile. But if you search via Yelp's app on an iPhone, Google can't see you at all.

29. So-called content adjacency problems occur when ads appear alongside text they'd prefer to avoid.

TRUE Yes, this is the definition of content adjacency.

click-through rate (CTR)

The number of users who clicked an ad divided by the number of times the ad was delivered (the impressions). The CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on an ad to arrive at a destination site.

search engine marketing (SEM)

The practice of designing, running, and optimizing search engine ad campaigns.

search engine optimization (SEO)

The process of improving a page's organic search rankings.

market capitalization (market cap)

The value of a firm calculated by multiplying its share price by the number of shares.

26. Efforts that link advertisers to content providers willing to host advertisers in exchange for payment, are referred to as _______________.

ad networks Next time you're surfing online, look around the different websites that you visit and see how many sport boxes labeled "Ads by Google." Those websites are participating in Google's ad network, which means they're running ads for Google in exchange for a cut of the take.

43. Which of the following is not true of Google Stadia? It has a price point of $10 a month. All of the above are true. It eliminates the console. None of the above are true. It can support a faster gaming experience than any console available at the time of launch

all of the above Google's Stadia eliminates the console, with Google offering a no-latency gaming experience built entirely in the cloud. Google does offer a controller that integrates across platforms: TV, PC, Chromebook, tablet, and phone. The firm claims it can support 4K video at sixty frames per second and boldly crows it is a faster gaming experience than any console available at the time of launch. A price point of just $10 a month could allow Google to crash into the $180 billion gaming industry.

21. The factors that can determine a given ad's quality score in Google includes the:

click-through rate An ad's quality score includes an ad's click-through rate (CTR), or the number of users who clicked an ad divided by the number of times the ad was delivered (the impressions). The CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on an ad to arrive at a destination-site, a key measure of the performance quality of a given ad.

30. Advertising based on a website's content is known as:

contextual advertising Contextual advertising based on keywords is lucrative, but like all technology solutions, it has its limitations. Vendors sometimes suffer from content adjacency problems when ads appear alongside text they would prefer to avoid.

11. The term _____ refers to Internet content that cannot be indexed by Google and other search engines.

deep Web The term deep Web refers to Internet content that cannot be indexed by Google and other search engines. A lot of content lies inside the "deep Web," either behind corporate firewalls or inaccessible to those without a user account-think of private Facebook updates no one can see unless they're your friend-all of that is out of Google's reach.

24. A link that takes a user to a specific webpage (rather than the home page) or which launches an app and brings up a unique location rather than just launching the app is referred to as _____________.

deep linking Deep linking is defined as a link that takes a user to a specific webpage (rather than the home page), or which launches an app and brings up a unique location rather than just launching the app.

33. Google's ad network gives it:

distribution For Google, its ad network is a distribution play. The ability to reach more potential customers across more websites attracts more advertisers to Google.

12. Google technology has been engineered so that no single point of failure should interrupt the firm's operations. Systems that have such safeguards against interruption are said to be:

fault tolerant Redundancy is the name of the game. Google assumes individual components will regularly fail, but no single failure should interrupt the firm's operations (making the setup what geeks call fault-tolerant).

48. _____ allows users to use their phones pay for goods, store gift cards, collect and redeem coupons and special offers, and manage loyalty programs.

google pay Google Pay allows phones to replace much of the "stuff" inside your wallet. It can be used to pay for goods, store gift cards, collect and redeem coupons and special offers, and manage loyalty programs.

18. Advertisements that are targeted based on a user's query are referred to as _____.

keyword advertising Advertisements that are targeted based on a user's query are referred to as keyword advertising. Advertisers bid on the keywords and phrases that they would like to use to trigger the display of their ad. Linking ads to search is considered good logic, since the user's search term indicates an overt interest in a given topic.

16. _____ is the process of creating a series of bogus websites, all linking back to the pages one is trying to promote.

link fraud Link fraud is also called "spamdexing" or "link farming." The idea behind it is to make a website move up in the natural search results in Google.

5. _____ is the value of a firm calculated by multiplying its share price by the number of shares.

market cap Market capitalization (market cap) is the value of a firm calculated by multiplying its share price by the number of shares. It is a strong indication of the value of a firm.

20. Ad rank on Google is calculated using the equation: Ad Rank = f (bid value a.k.a. __________ an advertiser is willing to pay, Quality Score, expected impact of extensions and formats).

maximum CPC Ad Rank = f (bid value a.k.a. maximum CPC an advertiser is willing to pay, Quality Score, expected impact of extensions and formats).

9. Search engine results returned and ranked according to relevance are known as a(n):

natural or organic search Performing a search (or query) on any search engine reveals results referred to by industry professionals as organic or natural search. Search engines use different algorithms for determining the order of organic search results. The best known is PageRank, used by Google.

28. Advertisers can use _______, which tell networks to avoid showing ads when specific words appear.

negative keywords Advertisers can use negative keywords, which tell networks to avoid showing ads when specific words appear.

19. Text ads appearing on Google search pages are billed on a(n) _____ basis.

pay-per-click Not only are search ads highly targeted, advertisers only pay for results. Text ads appearing on Google search pages are billed on a pay-per-click (cost-per-click) basis, meaning that advertisers don't spend a penny unless someone actually clicks on their ad.

44. Which of these is not a Google-backed effort to improve broadband access to Internet services?

project x Though not all of Google's efforts have been successful, Google Fiber offered high-speed, fiber-optic net access to homes in select U.S. cities, with Kansas City, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas chosen for the first rollouts. Google's now shuttered Project Loon sought to bring the Internet to even more underserved, by blanketing regions with twelve-mile-high balloons that act as floating Internet relay points. Google was also a founding investor in the ambitious globe-blanketing Internet satellite firm, O3b, but that effort has also been acquired by a new, majority investor.

17. The practice of designing, running and optimizing search-engine ad campaigns is known as:

search engine marketing. 17. The practice of designing, running and optimizing search-engine ad campaigns is known as:

35. Which of the following refers to sites that wrap data in invisible tags that can be recognized by search engines, analysis tools, and other services to make it easier for computer programs to accurately categorize, compare, and present this information?

semantic web Semantic Web refers to sites that wrap data in invisible tags that can be recognized by search engines, analysis tools, and other services to make it easier for computer programs to accurately categorize, compare, and present this information.

10. A(n) _____ is software that traverses available Web links in an attempt to perform a given task.

spider Search engines use spiders to discover documents for indexing and retrieval use. Spiders are also known as software robots or Web crawlers.

36. Although Microsoft has been tremendously profitable over the past decade, its stock price has been relatively flat over those years.

true Microsoft continues to dominate the incredibly lucrative markets served by Windows and Office. But these markets haven't grown much for over a decade. In industrialized nations, most Windows and Office purchases come not from growth, but when existing users upgrade or buy new machines. And without substantial year-on-year growth, the stock price doesn't move. The recent uptick in Microsoft's stock price is largely due to the firm's successful shift into cloud computing, seen as a growth market for the firm, although one that puts it in head-to-head competition with Google.

47. A(n) _____ is a closed network or a single set of services that is controlled by one dominant firm.

walled garden "Walled garden" is often applied to mobile carriers that act as gatekeepers, screening out hardware providers and software services from their networks.